Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 12,13 November 1992 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Don Hartridge

Classical Music

Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 9,10 April 1986 & 13 July 1986 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Philip Couzens [Assistant]

Strongly expressive, moving and often gripping.

The three works recorded here were written between 1949 and 1970, thus spanning more than twenty years of Leighton’s creative life.

The Symphony for Strings Op.3, one of Leighton’s earliest significant works, was first performed by Gerald Finzi and his Newbury String Players following Bernard Rose’s recommendation. Finzi, to whom Leighton dedicated his Veris Gratia Op.9 (1950), commented that he had “seldom come across an early work of such achievement” (in Diana McVeagh’s Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music publ. Boydell & Brewer). The music of this substantial work composed by a young man of twenty is still indebted to that of composers from older generations. One certainly thinks of Vaughan Williams and Finzi but also of Herbert Howells; but the music already displays a remarkable flair for telling string textures and considerable formal mastery. The first movement opens with a slow introduction soon giving way to the main body of the movement characterised by crisp rhythms and assured contrapuntal writing. The slow movement is mostly calm and expressive with a tenser central section, whereas the sunny third movement completely dispels the tension of the preceding movement and concludes the work in high spirits although the very ending is rather subdued and somewhat inconclusive. One can but wonder why a fine work of such calibre has remained unrecorded, let alone unheard, for so many long years. It clearly belongs to that glorious legacy of magnificent British works for string orchestra. One hopes that this recording will encourage many string orchestras to take it into their repertoire.

I have always had a soft spot for the Concerto for String Orchestra Op.39 simply because it was the very first work by Leighton that I have ever heard. Composed some twelve years after the Symphony for Strings, this is a considerably more mature work. In the intervening years, many things had happened to Leighton. He studied with Petrassi in Rome as a recipient of the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Petrassi, no doubt, introduced Leighton to dodecaphony and serialism and, more importantly, taught him how to use these techniques in a supple way in order to meet his personal expressive and formal needs; Petrassi was never a strict serialist. During that same period, Leighton also composed some early major works such as the Fantasia Contrappuntistica Op.24 for piano, the masterly Cello Concerto Op.31 that I consider one of his finest and most gripping achievements as well as the two string quartets and the Piano Quintet Op.34. The music of Op.39 is clearly mature, vintage Leighton throughout, although echoes of Bartók and even Shostakovich may still be heard from time to time. It now fully displays Leighton’s tense, rugged lyricism that can be best heard in the outer slow movements framing a short, nervous Scherzo. This is a most impressive and powerfully expressive work. I had not heard it for too many long years and I had forgotten what a beautiful work it was.

Although scored for the same forces as Poulenc’s celebrated Organ Concerto, the Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani Op.58 is a strikingly different piece. This major mature work displays many features that one has now come to regard as typical Leighton hallmarks. It is an intensely expressive, often sombre piece of utterly serious music that I find hard to resist. Its three movements are laid out in a similar pattern as those of the Concerto for Strings: two long slow outer movements framing a shorter central Scherzo. The dark-hued opening Lament unfolds contrapuntally with considerable cumulative force, the music being punctuated by an ominous, hollow gesture played by the timpani. The music gathers considerable momentum in the course of the first movement and the tension is eventually released in the short, nimble but nonetheless tense Scherzo. The final movement is a typical Leighton structure in the form of a Chorale with Variations eventually capped by a brief restatement of the very opening of the first movement.

These recordings are presented as premiere recordings, which is only partly true for collectors will certainly remember that the Organ Concerto was once available on Hyperion A66097 played by Christopher Rathbone with the Southern Pro Arte conducted by Charles Peebles. The Concerto for Strings was once available on Pye Virtuoso LP (TPLS 13005) played by the LPO conducted by John Snashall. Neither of these long-deleted LPs has ever been re-issued. Thus the “real” premiere recording is that of the Symphony for Strings. This is just a mere “grumble” about an otherwise magnificent release.

I now hope that the second volume - to include the masterly Second Symphony “Sinfonia Mistica” - will soon be released.

Leighton’s strongly expressive and often gripping music is superbly served by excellent performances and very fine recording. This magnificent release is a must for all Leighton fans, but also for all those who still need to be convinced that contemporary music can also be moving.

-- Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Addison's scores frequently pay hommage to the time-honoured tradition in film music, which dates back to the silent film era, of alluding to well-known tunes and indulging in innocent tunefulness, yet the scores have achieved iconic status and contributed to turning many of the films into the national treasures they are today. This new addition to the Chandos Movies label, which has been highly sought-after, is sure to be a highlight amongst many gems.

Recorded in: Glasgow City Hall 22-26 April 1988 Recorded in: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow 22-26 April 1988 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Janet Middlebrook [Assistant]

Classical Music

Recorded in: St George's Church, Bloomsbury, London 1 June 1983 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens

The American composer Steve Reich pioneered the style of minimalism in music. He has been hugely influential on contemporary composers such as John Adams, but also on the progressive rock movement of the 80s with bands such as King Crimson and rock musicians such as Brian Eno. The Guardian has described him as one of 'a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history'. The Desert Music is perhaps Reich's most ambitious orchestral score to date - a setting of texts by the American poet William Carlos Williams (1886 - 1963) for chorus and large orchestra. It is a highly symphonic piece which is inspired by Reich's own travels in California's Mojave Desert, the White Sands - and perhaps in particular the Alamagordo in New Mexico, which carries sinister associations with secret weapons of mass destruction and suggests a geographical link with the poet's somber warning to mankind in the work's central movement. Another opportunity to write for large orchestra came when the St Louis Symphony Orchestra commissioned Reich to write his Three Movements. This work was premiered in St Louis under Leonard Slatkin in April 1986. As in The Desert Music, the sizeable string section is divided, here into two subsections which are placed to the left and right of the conductor to create the alternating antiphonal effect that is so characteristic of Reich's style. Hearing these performances, Steve Reich described them as 'Incisive, focused, and intense' and continued 'this recording of Three Movements is the best I have ever heard. The Desert Music is full, rich, yet full of detail. Kristjan Järvi, the Tonkünstler-Orchester, and Sine Nomine perform with a relaxed rhythmic precision that perfectly fits the music. Bravo and thanks to all.' This is the third SACD recording on Chandos by the Vienna-based Tonkünstler-Orchester, Niederösterreich under Kristjan Jarvi, its Chief Conductor and Music Director from 2004 - 2009. They are joined by Chorus Sine Nomine, one of Austria's leading vocal ensembles and winner of numerous awards and prizes.

Recorded in: Stockholm Concert Hall 4-5, 7-11 June 1993 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Recorded in: Dvorák Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague 23, 25 & 26 June 1992 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant)

Winner of the coveted Gramophone Record of the Year award!

‘The burly Aussie tenor is now even more identified with this ill-fated protagonist than Peter Pears, the first Grimes. And everywhere Skelton has sung the part, whether at English National Opera, the Proms, the Edinburgh festival or now on this international tour of a concert staging mounted by the Bergen Philharmonic, the conductor has been Edward Gardner. Theirs is one of the great musical partnerships, and they continue to find compelling new depths in this tragic masterpiece.’ – Richard Morrison – The Times. This studio recording was made following the acclaimed production at Grieghallen, in Bergen, in 2019 (repeated in Oslo and London and reviewed above). Luxuriant playing from the Bergen Philharmonic and a stellar cast under the assured direction of Edward Gardner make this a recording to treasure.

REVIEW:

The net joy of this new recording is that Skelton, now a Grimes of considerable experience and range, has found in his vocalisation of the role a well-judged mixture of obsessive professional (sometimes rough) fisherman and troubled, confused and persecuted outsider. All this is precisely framed by Gardner’s conducting and his choice of cast. An exciting, committed, necessary and brilliantly recorded version for our times.

– Gramophone (Recording of The Month, October 2020

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

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"'Das Buch' is a strange and intense work, a sprawling, dense and complex oratorio based on the less-than-cheery biblical Book of Revelation, which Kristjan Jarvi calls 'an official guide to the worst-case scenario.' It features organ solos, huge choruses, contrapuntal passages reminiscent of the Bach Passions, and orchestral writing that is delicate and monumental. There are operatic vocal quartets, a heldentenor St. John the Divine and a Wotan-like Voice of God.... Schmidt was born in 1874 in Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia). He and contemporaries like Alexander Zemlinsky (a refugee from the Nazis and thus on the other side of the political fence) are part of a second tier of big-scale symphonists overshadowed by Bruckner and Mahler. But their music is worth mining, and Mr. Jarvi said he hoped his recording would lead to 'a small, or maybe not so small,' resurgence of interest in Schmidt’s music. 'I see him really as this great Mahlerian-type composer who really has a lot to offer to the world,' Mr. Jarvi, 35, said." -- The New York Times

"**** Das Buch has passages of striking modernity, most notably the skeletally scored section after the breaking of the Fourth Seal, when tenor and bass soloists represent survivors of a battle. Jarvi conducts a well-played and sung account of the complex score, with fine contributions from Johannes Chum (St John), Robert Holl (Voice of a God, above), and a well-balanced quartet." -- The Sunday Times (UK)

The ongoing, critically acclaimed Chandos series of orchestral works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919–96) now explores some of the composer’s lesser-known late works. This disc features the last two Chamber Symphonies, which indeed reflect a largely hidden yet still prolific period of his life. The highly experienced and versatile Thord Svedlund conducts the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, here recording with Chandos for the first time. Not only is Chamber Symphony No. 4 the penultimate work that Weinberg completed, but it can also be read as a summation of his entire life and oeuvre. The elegiac mood shaping the piece echoes his last decade – of infirmity, loss and gradual decline in public and professional interest in his work. Apart from the sad, wistful last movement (Andantino) heralding No. 4, Chamber Symphony No. 3 is closely linked to his Fifth String Quartet, op. 27 through its recitative-like melody. At the same time, it perfectly justifies both the term ‘Chamber Symphony’ and the orchestra here playing it: the Helsingborg Symphony, one of Sweden’s oldest, was founded in 1912 originally as a chamber orchestra.